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Have you seen them? William Safire is looking.

Let's just pack up and leave!

On second thought, that might not work...read the article.

as usual, the Captain comes in with some excellent analysis of the skewed numbers that resulted in poll numbers way off from any other poll. I guess that's what happens when you add extra democrats to the polling audience.

good article on OpinionJournal, as well as some evidence of media amnesia on the issue here.

Check out this article
by Rabbi Avi Shafran, of Agudath Israel, who points out the Anti-Semitism lurking beneath the surface of the international communities' attacks on Israel.

Excellent response tp all this garbage about American Olympic Athletes not being allowed to wave flags in victory celebrations b/c it might make other countries angry...

Check this out for the real deal on the supposed attack on the Iraqi wedding party.

Read Jonah Goldberg on the Russert Powell Flap...

Senator Ernest Hollings (D-South Carolina), writessome of the tired old rhetoric about how Bush crafted the war from the beginning of his presidency, and how their is no terror links in Iraq.

Ok..Standard Lib talking points.

He then raises some objections to how we are fighting the war, namely that their are not enough troops there.

Fine. That's arguable.

But here's where he completely leaves relatively benign liberal insanity, and moves into a completely different dimension of madness:

1) The war in Iraq is really for the sole purpose of helping out Israel.
2) This war was done to secure the Jewish vote.

Now, despite these 2 ridiculous charges, and especially as a Jew i am insulted by these allegations, there's more...

3) He writes, "In the Mideast, terrorism is a separate problem to be defeated by diplomacy and negotiation, not militarily. Here, might does not make right — right makes might. Acting militarily, we have created more terrorism than we have eliminated."

This is awful. The philosophy of moral relativism that is required to not view terrorists as an enemy worth fighting and killing, is abhorrent.

And yet, the good Senator from South Carolina is defending his ridiculous charges.

Luckily, he is not seeking re-election.

Now we just need a Republican to take over...

Check out these two articles, one by Dick Morris, and one by William Safire (thanks to my dad for pointing that article my way), for two very different visions of what we can and should continue to accomplish in Iraq.

Read this excellent analysis by the Captain on the ABC News whistleblower who tells all about the prison abuse and how '"dozens" of people knew about the abuse, and that it stemmed from orders given by military intelligence. ' (quote from Captain Ed).

But wait? How does he know this information? Here's the smoking gun....

"He said that while he did not see the actual abuse take place, the interrogators with whom he worked freely admitted they directed the MPs' rough treatment of prisoners."

So he HEARD about it....there you go. Must be a fact. After all, when world intelligence indicated that Iraq had WMD's, without acutally seeing anything, THAT was accepted as fact too...

Oh, it wasn't?

Oops.

so I am listening to
Laura Ingraham on the radio tonight, and this guy Ben Shapiro comes on. This guy is 20 years old, graduating UCLA this June, is a Syndicated Columnist (!), has a
book that he's just written, AND he's an Orthodox Jew. Pretty cool.

He was speaking about his book, called Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth, which is a subject I can relate to after suffering through a year of flaming liberalism in my
Master's program. I think I am going to buy the book. Add it to my summer reading list.
He's also going on my blog list.

Helprin makes some compelling points about some Republican missteps in Post-War Iraq.....but also points out that the Democratic alternative is even worse...

But is that such a good idea? Excellent editorial from the Journal points out that the Red Cross is unfortunately, not as neutral as it claims to be....

Take a look at this and find out....

How awesome is Peter King? (not the SI writer)
He points out the obvious hypocrisy in the Vatican's condemnation of abuse and sexual abuse in Iraqi prisons.

...to advance their liberal agenda. Readthe latest debacle, as the media continues its shameful double standard when convering the prisoner abuse vs the nick berg beheading...

and if that wasn't enough, the Boston Globe can't even seem to apologize correctly over showing FAKE (not too mention pornographic) images in their paper which supposedly depicted soldiers raping Iraqi women....

Evidently, at least according to the New York Times, "The Central Intelligence Agency has used coercive interrogation methods against a select group of high-level leaders and operatives of Al Qaeda that have produced growing concerns inside the agency about abuses, according to current and former counterterrorism officials."

Here's the whole article. Let's make sure we are clear here. These are not Iraqi detainees. These are people involved in 9/11!!!!!
Remember? 3000 dead? I hope they went far enough in their interrogations....those scum deserve it.

Check this out..evidently, the commission members are brushing up on their interrogation techniques...

Could someone explain this comic found in the French paper Le Monde?

Besides the disgusting nature of the comic, I gotta echo the sentiments asked here:
"Question - was Le Monde anticipating this affiliation with the KKK when they declared that they were "all Americans?"">

Sometimes, amidst all the garbage that goes on, someone just nails it! Read Polipundit's inspiring words of patriotism...

Captain Ed sums it up nicely. Let's let the military get on with winning this war!

While we are on Captain Ed, he asks the question no one wants to ask: Where are the Muslims, condemning the Berg killing?? And the Pearl killing? and 9/11? and so on and so on...their silence is deafening....
Read this important post.

Check it out....

Captain Ed wonders what exactly is the purspose of these public hearings, besides partisan grandstanding for the cameras?

I have been very busy over the last two days, and have not had time to post. I have still been following the news as of late, and compiled several articles and blog posts that I think are worth looking at.

But before that, I just wanted to reflect a moment on what has been going on. I am saddened, but unfortunately not shocked, at the hypocrisy of the US media, the extreme liberal characters of our government, and the Arab street (and media, which reflects that sentiment). The extreme rush to judgment on the horrible abuses of Iraqi prisoners, by the aforementioned groups, looking for a conspiracy leading through the Pentagon and White House, simply provided more ammunition for terrorists worldwide, looking for cracks in our armor.

Lost in the shuffle is the fact that the Military began investigation the allegations of mistreatment within ONE DAY of their being reported back in JANUARY, and the court martials and military trials currently going on where on track BEFORE the media decided that these pictures needed to be shown.

Also lost on the traditional media is the fact that testimony today from Gen Taguba (of the now infamous report on prisoner abuse) indicated that the abuse was isolated to the soldiers who committed them, and were not part of some grand scheme going back to higher ups.

Lost as well in the shuffle of today's testimony is the fact that the Red Cross stated that the US was making progress on the abuse claims. See this post for more on why we aren't hearing that. Instead, we focus on idiots like LA Times Editor John Carrol, who has the audacity, standing from the pulpit of the Left Coast's version of the New York Times, to lecture us on pseudo-journalism sources like fox news, etc., when in fact the study that he was referring to specifically warned that "The findings were not meant to and cannot be used as a basis for making broad judgments about the general accuracy of the reporting of various networks or the general accuracy of the beliefs of those who get their news from those networks. Only a substantially more comprehensive study could undertake such broad research questions."
We are forced to endure headlines blaming prisoner abuse for the horrible beheading of Nick Berg,like the ones chronicled by Andrew Sullivan, who asks:
"How are the media this stupid? AOL headlines: "Abuse Scandal's Deadly Fallout" referring to the hideous beheading of Nick Berg. Or this idiocy: "American Beheaded for Abuse." Do these people have no memories? This is al Qaida. They beheaded Daniel Pearl long before the war in Iraq. "

read the whole post...

and while you are at it, read this.
also, check out this link about the tremendous hypocrisy in the media rushing to show more prisoner images, but not showing images (WARNING GRAPHIC) from the Berg murder, or even telling you the web sitethat had posted the video!!

in addition, check out this expert analysis of a Fareed Zacharia piece on the prison abuse...

AND (I know, there is so much, but the media is so full of it) see an account of Seymour Hirsch of the New Yorker, engaging in an active disinformation campaignregarding the abuse photos he brought to light...

finally, Ted Kennedy acts like, well Ted Kennedy, and shamelessly turns the prisoner abuse issue into a political partisan rant, and how does the elite media respond? As you can see from the link to hugh hewitt, they respond with silence. They don't allow the world to read the disgusting comments of the man behind John Kerry.
And speaking of John Kerry, you gotta love it.

The economy is booming (Strike one).

Bush has some of the worst moments in his Presidency, "And yet. In a two-way presidential-preference match-up, Bush beats John Kerry, 48% to 47%--a slight (statistically insignificant) improvement from last week, when Kerry led 49% to 48%." (via opinion journal's best of the web from Tuesday, with poll numbers based on USA Today data). (Strike 2).

And then, the Kerry campaign, suffering from perhaps the biggest brain cramp of the month, first circulates a petition to have Rumsfeld resign, and then uses the prisoner abuse allegations to raise money for his campaign. (Strike 3!)

And Bush should be criticized for referring to his 9/11 actions in his ads?
right....Crazy stuff.....

Excellent editorial from (Where else?) the Wall Street Journal.....

see this analysis of a thomas friedman article on the old "everyone hates us, what should we do??" issue.

Read Captain's Quarters excellent analysis of the tougher interrogation techniques approved by the Defense Dept. in order to extract intelligence from detainees.

Excellent Op-Ed in the Washington Times about Rumsfeld and the military investigation into prisoner abuse. It makes the point that,
"In a healthier political environment, every member of Congress would be working cooperatively with Mr. Rumsfeld to minimize the damage that this situation can do to the war effort. "

Unfortunately however, "some Democratic senators decided to air their partisanship. The worst was Sen. Edward Kennedy, who delivered a propaganda line sure to be repeatedly broadcast by Al Jazeera: "In the Middle East and too often today, the symbol of America is not the Statue of Liberty; it's the prisoner standing on a box wearing a dark cape and dark hood on his head, wires attached to his body, afraid that he's going to be electrocuted." "

But the American people know better:

"Although Mr. Rumsfeld and the other officials who testified have not acted in ways that would grab headlines (and thereby compromise the integrity of their investigations and allow guilty parties to escape punishment), the American people appear to recognize how foolish the media frenzy demanding his resignation is. According to an ABCNEWS/Washington Post poll released yesterday, more than six in 10 Americans view the incidents of misconduct as isolated, and by a 69 percent to 20 percent margin, Americans believe that Mr. Rumsfeld should keep his job. Democrats support Mr. Rumsfeld remaining in office by a margin of almost 2-1."

great editorial on the ridiculous hypocrisy of the Arab media, the American and European Anti-America crowd, and unfortunately, our own media as well....

Good editorial from the Journal on New Jersey Gov. McGreevey's ("it only affects 28,000 people so it's ok") so-called 'millionaires' tax hike for people earning 500,000 or more. It compares it with Clinton's tax hikes, and Kerry proposed tax 'adjustments.'
BOTTOM LINE: It ain't just the rich getting shafted.

WOW. This is the best article I have seen in a long time. It clearly explains the root of our country's problems in dealing with Terror.

Gotta love BlameBush.com's take on the Rumsfeld resignation calls. Funny. But so much truth in there as well! Scary. While we are in the humorous mood, check out these 2 other posts by the same blog: this and this.

Funny. Sad.

One of the true joys of life! By the way, I just started looking at this econopundit guy, and he is very funny. I will put him on my side links, or whatever that is called in blogland...Blogroll? Whatever...

According to this editorial from the Wall Street Journal, the US government is standing idly by as the world spins us into something we are not. We need some good PR people to get our message out. If the Super Bowl people are busy, maybe some of the people introducing Kerry to the country could help us out...

The fact that Kerry waffles on everything, and answers in convaluted responses to simple questions is hardly news to anyone. However, I am linking to these stories b/c the propsect of him doing it on 2 critical issues: Iraq, specifically with regard to the prisoner scandel, and Israel.

Read Up. And then regiser to vote. And then make sure this guy stays in Massachusetts. Or any of his other 6 homes.

Excellent response by Captain Ed to the liberal calls for jumping ship in Iraq b/c of the prisoner scandel. As usual, he sets the facts straight, and gives the situation its proper perspective.

As Glenn Reynolds would say: Read the whole thing.

More than words, this now famous
story and image of President Bush comforting a teenager who lost her mother on 9/11 explains why I love our President. Someone made the point (possibly polipundit, but i forget and its late) that this image is unique b/c the Prez is looking at the camera. But that is exactly the point. Clinton lived for these moments, and knew how to stage them. Bush wasn't posing. He was looking at the girl's father, who took the picture. For the President, it's real. (Thanks Howie for the tip!)

Read this post from instapundit.com. Excellent point about Kerry's awful remarks on the administration 'moving slowly' to deal with the Iraqi prisoner abuse. Check out the video ad, courtesy of crushkerry.com, pointing out the hypocrisy in Kerry's comments, when compared to his own 'war crimes' comments about HIS actions in Vietnam...

First Libya...they saw what the US was doing to Iraq, and they got the message, and are dumping their WMD. Now, North Korea is following suit. (via instapundit). Unlike the anti-war freaks, the people the matter actually seem to be getting it....Terrorizing the world does not pay!

Check out scrappleface.com kind of like the onion for politics, but with some reality thrown in....
also, for all you political/polling number buffs, election projection is for you...enjoy!

Evidently, other people hate Maureen Dowd also...

Horrible. There is no other way to describe the attack on a 34 year old social worker, 8 months pregnant, in which her life and her four daughters lives were claimed.
In terms of the bigger israel picture, i don't know what I think. On the one hand, as Debka reports, the Gaza disengagement plan was deemed impractical and unsafe by Israeli military and intelligence officials, on the other hand, as Captain Ed writes, the pullout plan would have given Israel the chance to avoid having to find a suitable netgotiating partner, in a world where it is obvious that none exists. He writes that if that doesn't happen, "Likud just voted to continue the violence indefinitely without any strategy to bring it to a close."

This doesn't even deal with the emotional heartache of giving up some of our homeland......